The music video for "Stronger" was directed by Hype Williams and shot over nine days in Japan. It includes shots filmed in Aoyama-based clothing store A Bathing Ape as well as Harajuku clothing store Billionaire Boys Club/Ice Cream. The video took over three months to complete. West first premiered a rough cut at the Tribeca Studios in New York City on June 19, 2007. It made its public premiere on June 26, 2007, on MTV Germany's TRL. The video was also shown on the BET countdown show 106 & Park on June 28, 2007. The video features appearances by singer and model Cassie Ventura, a real-life Japanese motorcycle gang, and the two principal actors from the film Daft Punk's Electroma dressed as Daft Punk. The video also features multiple scenes which pay homage to the 1988 anime film Akira. These include the light effects on the motorbikes, the hospital scenes and West being scanned by machines. Both West and Williams had originally planned to integrate scenes from the film into the video. West also wears a pair of Alain Mikli sunglasses, which he requested from the designer specifically for the video. The sunglasses have since become a signature of West, who for a period of time often donned them during performances. The video was nominated for two 2007 MTV Video Music Awards for Video of the Year and Best Editing in a Video. It won Best Hip-Hop Video at the BET Hip-Hop Awards as well as Best Video at the MOBO Awards. The first thing that came to my mind when I watched this video was, god they had a big budget! It is one of the most expensive videos that I have ever seen. The other thing I noticed, was it did not have a story that made sense. The video starts off with a flashing light. I think they were trying to tell the audience that Kanye West has been born into the world, or that a new life has been created. That is what I think. Then the audience enters a portal where Kanye West is sleeping, waiting to be waken up by a machine. Half way through the video you see Kanye West not well in hospital. When you watch the video you can tell he is bed bound, then all of a sudden he is fighting the sickness that is in his body and he starts to walk. He is still stumbling and a nurse starts to scream and she starts to run in fear. About two seconds later a group of police come storming into the building locked and loaded. Then Kanye West starts rapping the lyrics, "and that that don’t kill me can only make me stronger." After these words are said, the police get thrown back in the elevator. What I liked about that part was when the police got thrown back into the elevator, they used slow motion for about 10 seconds. I thought the way they did it was very clever. When the song was released in 2007 it was very popular in the United States and went straight to number one. The single sold 4 million copies in the United States making it go 4x platinum. The song also went straight to number 1 in the United Kingdom. The song is now played in nightclubs across the world and at house parties. The single went gold in New Zealand and the single went platinum in Australia. In September 2011 the Billboard chart released a statement on their website that the song has now been downloaded 4,848,000 times, making it one of the most downloaded songs of all time. The video on YouTube has been watched 82,851,631 times. The video has more likes than dislikes. The video has 166,850 likes and 6,833 dislike,s proving that the song is very popular. The only sites I found the video on were Google video, YouTube Daily motion, Kanye west.com and MySpace. I think the video has not dated at all because it still looks fresh today. The special effects they used in the video are amazing and they look like they would have been used in a big Hollywood Blockbuster.
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